At a time when digital devices take precedence over print in most homes and offices, Amazon has a stranglehold on the sale of books worldwide, and independent booksellers hang in there purely because of their love of reading, it’s something of a miracle to hear about a bookstore opening instead of yet another store shutting its doors.

Especially when that bookstore is focused on children’s literature.

Drawn & Quarterly, a Montreal-based publishing house that specializes in graphic novels, is no stranger to trying times. “We opened our store at 211 (Bernard St. in Mile End) 10 years ago,” said publisher Peggy Burns, “when the Double Hook (an iconic bookstore on Greene Ave. that specialized in Canadian literature and carried kids’ books) had closed, ebooks were on the rise and we heard about the terrible economy every day. No one was shopping, they said, and it’s true that we had some zero-dollar days.”

But here they are, with La Petite Librairie Drawn & Quarterly having opened last month at 176 Bernard, across the street from the well-established flagship store — undaunted by the digital revolution or Amazonian strength.

“Actually, as publisher we have an interesting relationship with Amazon,” said Burns, who notes that D&Q’s titles are carried by the online giant. “Don’t forget that not everyone lives near a bookstore. If you’re in a rural community far from an urban centre, then Amazon is your local bookstore.”

D&Q’s experience with the store at 211 has prepared staff for any slow days they may experience at 176; it has taught them about survival.

It has also taught them about the importance of community support. Librairie Drawn & Quarterly has hosted and staged events that drew people in from Mile End and the rest of the city, featuring such writers and cartoonists as Lynda Barry, Margaret Atwood, Kate Beaton, David Byrne, Neil Gaiman, Miranda July, Art Spiegelman, Chris Ware, Daniel Clowes, Adrian Tomine, Tom Gauld and Zadie Smith.

A tiny corner of the 800-square-foot store was devoted to children’s books; not only did that collection grow organically, but special events began to be organized for young readers. Raina Telgemeier (author of the graphic novel Smile) was brought in from New York to speak to preteens and teens. Award-winning illustrator Isabelle Arsenault, who lives in Mile End and has set her newest picture book (Colette’s Lost Pet) in the neighbourhood, came by to do signings and craft activities with the kids. But space was cramped at 211.

“We knew we wanted to expand,” Burns said, “but we wanted to be smart about it.”

When she heard a clothing store on the street was closing and the space would be available, D&Q made the move. “There’s more space here — about 1,000 square feet — and it has a basement, so there’s room for storage and to expand downstairs.” What’s more, “it made sense to move our events over here, because kids are not going to be shopping at night.” (At 211, evening events meant the store pretty much shut down while space was cleared for speakers.) As such, D&Q’s executive editor, Tom Devlin, and his furniture-making brother built custom bookcase/tables on wheels; they can be easily moved to make room for a portable stage.

During the day, those bookcase/tables display an ever-changing collection of titles for a wide range of ages — from babies to teens. Store co-ordinator Arizona O’Neill tries to ensure there is a mix of French and English titles on each table. “We also try to include a lot of books by Indigenous authors,” she said.

“Part of our mission is to have very inclusive books here,” Burns said, “so people can recognize themselves in the stories and pictures.”

Already, the new store appears to have a following. By 11 a.m. on a recent Saturday, young families arrived for storytime. Mothers and fathers sat or stood on the periphery while more than a dozen preschoolers jockeyed for position on a colourful foam mat and settled in to hear Lauriane Angers-Gauthier read a picture book in French and Chantal Houtteman read one in English. The kids hung on their every word, and weren’t shy about chiming in with questions or comments. When the readings were done, they hit the craft tables and made good use of the crayons and paper provided.

“We live in the Plateau,” said Caitlin McGinn, having admired her 3 ½-year-old daughter Maeve’s proudly presented drawing, “and we follow D&Q.” She and her husband moved their family to Montreal just a few months ago, having previously lived in Cumberland on Vancouver Island. “We buy a lot of books,” McGinn said, “and I’ve been reading to her since she was two weeks old. At about six or seven months old, she first made the movement of turning pages herself.

“She’s a really imaginative kid, and a lot of that comes from books. She’s very good at telling stories already; she knows about the structure and her voice goes up and down.

“Right now she’s obsessed with graphic novels,” McGinn said, pointing to her daughter, who had a glossy version spread out on a chair and was poring over the pictures. “But there’s not a lot of those in her age group; there’s Little Robot (by Ben Hatke), and she loves that one. She’s interested in figuring out the stories from the pictures.”

Robert Paterson, who is on the board of the Knowlton Literary Festival Association, would cite Maeve as an example of something he has been preaching for many years, and to which the association has decided to draw attention: that it’s important to read to the very young.

“Children need to hear a lot of words by the age of two,” he said, noting that it’s crucial to the acquisition of language and vocabulary. “The wonderful thing about being read to as an infant is that you’re bathing that child in words. Parents are holding the babies in their arms and that touch is important — the touch, the words, and the culture of reading for pleasure.”

Times are tough for hard-working rural families in the Eastern Townships, he said, and books don’t always make it into the daily routine at home. So the Knowlton Literary Festival Association has been looking to daycares as places where children can spend time with books and stories. The Tales4Tots initiative invites people to donate age-appropriate used books to La Passerelle des Mousses, the largest daycare in Knowlton, and to other daycares in the Townships. A website has been set up with information (tales4tots.com) and there are plans to enlist the aid of animals in teaching children about the joys of reading.

“We found someone who has volunteered to provide miniature horses for a program by which we bring the children together with an animal and storytime. That’s the bait: the horses are going to read to the children.”

Some funds will be needed to truck the horses to the schools (“all except the smallest one; it’ll be brought in the car”), but Paterson is convinced the animals will help create “pathways to make reading easy,” and to give young kids in rural areas the same opportunity to learn that urban children like Maeve have.

AT A GLANCE

La Petite Librairie Drawn & Quarterly is at 176 Bernard St. W. Special events at the store include bilingual storytime with Yayo, author/illustrator of Pikiq, Saturday, Nov. 25 from 11 a.m. to noon; and with Matthew Forsythe, illustrator of The Bad Mood and the Stick, who will read to the kids and draw with them on Saturday, Dec. 2 from 11 a.m. to noon.

Babar Books bridges generations

Having spent 30-plus years running a specialty children’s bookstore in the Montreal area, Maya Byers has hosted numerous in-store events — everything from weekly storytime sessions for the very young to YA (young adult) book sessions for teachers and librarians. There have been memorable Harry Potter launches that drew so many readers waiting for a book’s midnight release that the lineups stretched clear down the block and around the corner from Babar Books’ location in Pointe-Claire.

But never before had Byers been visited by an advance man from New York. One came to check out the store’s layout recently for an author visit that would, he told her, see a crew of 18 from New York descend on Babar Books to transform it into facsimiles of an airport departure lounge (upstairs) and a vacation paradise (downstairs). The prospect of having bookcases moved out of the way at the 3,500-square-foot store, which stocks 31,000 book titles, and artwork taken off the walls might leave others a bit nervous, but Byers seems unfazed.

Jeff Kinney will be at Babar Books on Nov. 20 for a high-concept event promoting the latest volume of his wildly popular Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. (Credit: Amulet/Abrams)

“It’s for Jeff Kinney, the Wimpy Kid star,” she said, explaining that the U.S. author is on a global tour promoting The Getaway. It’s the latest volume of the wildly popular Diary of a Wimpy Kid series of illustrated novels, which are especially favoured by boys in middle grades.

“We’re really proud that he chose our store as his only Canadian stop in this tour. He’s visiting 10 places in North America (as well as cities in Europe and Asia), but we’re the only one in Canada. He wanted an independent bookstore,” and Quebec was especially advantageous, Byers explained, “because his books are also available in French.”

The ticketed event takes place Monday, Nov. 20 in one-hour instalments from 5 to 9 p.m. Each ticket covers the cost of the book and entitles the bearer to enter the by-then-transformed store accompanied by an adult for various activities, including a book signing.

Chances are Wimpy Kid fans will take to this event the way Harry Potter fans took to the late-night book launches at Babar.

“We have customers who used to come to the store as kids and who are now coming in with their own children,” Byers said. “And their parents are coming in to buy for their grandchildren.”

Megan Byers, the store manager (and Maya’s daughter), said millennials are raising children of their own now, “and they feel nostalgia for their own childhood; they want to give the kids what they had themselves.”

Smartphones and tablets are an undeniable part of life today, but the pleasures of curling up with a book continue to hold power. “We didn’t have the internet when we started the store,” Maya said. “The biggest change is that now kids know the exact date a new book comes out. And we used to have storytime in the middle of the week for stay-at-home moms, but they’re not there anymore.” So now the weekly bilingual storytime and craft sessions occur on Saturdays. “And we get more dads coming in with their kids now than we used to. It’s not just moms anymore.”

YA author Maggie Stiefvater, far left, speaks to members of the Babar Teen Advisory Board (Serena Masciotra, second from left, Kate Patterson, Madeline Mugridge, Sophia Pasia, Sara Veleno and Megan Schmidt) prior to a reading and signing at Babar Books. Stiefvater is known for her paranormal fiction and was at the Pointe-Claire store to promote her latest book, All the Crooked Saints. (Photo: John Mahoney / Montreal Gazette)

Megan, who loves YA fiction and wanted someone to talk to about it, has launched the Babar Teen Advisory Board (a.k.a. BabTAB). “It started in May,” she said. “I sent emails to about 25 teens and thought I might get three kids. I got 20 who said they were interested. We meet once a month, and attendance usually ranges around 15.”

Meetings last two hours. “I work with galleys (of books slated for publication) and each person chooses two or three to review. Then they look through the store, talk about upcoming events and talk about books. These are kids who treat their books like they’re precious; they’re my kind of people!”

Maya nodded. “If you love anything, you want to share it. You pass it along.”

AT A GLANCE

Babar Books is at 46 Ste-Anne Ave., Suite 2 in Pointe-Claire. Visit livresbabarbooks.com for information about special events, buying tickets to the Jeff Kinney session on Nov. 20, or to read reviews written by members of the Babar Teen Advisory Board.

Comments

We encourage all readers to share their views on our articles and blog posts. We are committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion, so we ask you to avoid personal attacks, and please keep your comments relevant and respectful. If you encounter a comment that is abusive, click the "X" in the upper right corner of the comment box to report spam or abuse. We are using Facebook commenting. Visit our FAQ page for more information.